Anthony LaPaglia to play Julian Assange in “Underground” TV film

PanARMENIAN.Net - Newcomer Alex Williams will play Julian Assange in Underground, the Australian TV movie that’s based around the early life of the WikiLeaks founder, Deadline reported.

Rachel Griffiths will play Assange’s activist mother, Christine Assange. Anthony LaPaglia is playing Ken Roberts, the detective determined to uncover the young Assange’s activity in Melbourne in the late 80s and early 90s when he led a ring of underground hackers. The film hails from Matchbox Pictures, in which NBCUniversal acquired a majority stake last year.

Other cast includes Callan McAuliffe, who’s playing a young Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, along with Animal Kingdom’s Laura Wheelwright and Jordan Raskopoulos, who directed and starred in 2011 Funny Or Die short, The Axis of Awesome: How to Write a Love Song.

Robert Connolly, who’s known for Matchbox’s controversial hit Oz TV series, The Slap, wrote the screenplay and will direct. The Slap’s Helen Bowden and Tony Ayres of Matchbox are producing and executive producing, respectively. The film starts shooting on April 16 and will air locally on Network Ten in the latter half of this year. NBCU International is distributing worldwide.